Shop bag

ABSTRACT

A shop bag  120  has a curved hook  100  with a first finger  101  inside the bag and a curved finger  104  outside the bag. The curved finger  104  provides a hook that may be clipped over a belt or pant top. The hook  104  has an opening  105  for receiving a nail or other bracket so that the bag and its contents may be suspended from the nail or bracket.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of the priority date ofProvisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/561,458 filed Apr. 12, 2004.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to bags for storing and carrying objects, and morespecifically to bags used for storing, carrying, and accessing parts andliquids for use in construction or fabrication, fishing and artistic andcraft activities.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the process of construction, a worker ordinarily must use largenumbers of small parts in fastening, connecting, securing, and coveringthe components and members of the object, surface, or structure beingconstructed. For example, a carpenter applying a molding fastened withfinishing nails must use large numbers of such nails in the process. Thestorage of finishing nails during the application of the moldingrequires that the carpenter carry the nails in some kind of convenientcontainer such as a pocket or pouch. The carpenter can then reach thenails quickly and without wasted movement, the fisherman can readilyaccess bait and the artist or craftsperson may access materials for theart or craft activity.

The same requirements exist for electricians dressing cables with ties,or plumbers anchoring tubing to joists, or painters applying paint orspackle in small quantities, or for many other workers performingconstruction-related tasks. There is a need for a suitable, wearablecontainer to carry small parts and small amounts of surface treatmentssuch as paints and spackle.

Another requirement for small parts and surface treatments is that theymay be stored conveniently, safely, and with minimum space waste betweenuses.

Numerous products attempt to address these requirements. U.S. Pat. No.5,114,061 (Brady), U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,420 (Rinecker), U.S. Pat. No.4,444,342 (Powell), and U.S. Pat. No. 1,751,229 (Bigelow) all representearlier efforts to store and carry small objects. Some of these patents,e.g., Brady and Powell, hang a bag from a belt loop or clamp. Threeother patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,113,590, 4,416,315, and 5,181,637, alsoincorporate the belt loop.

Belt loops and clamps have disadvantages. The user of a belt loop mustkeep the loop on the belt—if the loop must be threaded on the belt, orif more than one loop is needed, the belt must be adjusted to add theloop. The user of a clamp is faced with the inconvenience of fumblingwith clamp handles and tolerating the clamp's shape during movement.

Some of the conventional bags lack transparency to allow visualidentification of their contents. Some lack puncture strength. Some lackclosures. Most lack means of suspension that provide for easy use eitherwith a peg or nail or with a shaft or belt. None can be used withliquids or semi-liquids.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a bag for storing, carrying, identifying, andretrieving for use any of a wide range of small fasteners or otherhardware, or of small quantities of surface treatments such as paint,putty, calk, or spackle. The invention's bag is made of toughtransparent plastic such as 6 to 8 mills thick, to resist puncture orripping by sharp objects and to facilitate identification of the storedobjects or substances. The bag closes at the top by the folding over ofits upper corners to contact surface fastenings such as Velcro, or bythe use of a locking plastic linear closure such as Zip-Loc or by aslider commonly found on freezer bags. However, in contrast to suchbags, the invention provides plastic bags with welded edge seams on thesides and the bottom. In the preferred embodiment the edge seams arebetween one quarter to three inches deep. In contrast, ordinary bags hasshallow seams and only the sides, not the bottoms, are welded.

The bag is fabricated with a flat vertical spine. In the preferredembodiment the spine is inside the bag and is retained in the bag by atop closure rib formed in the bag. In an alterative embodiment, thespine is fixed to the outside surface of the bag In both embodiments,the top of the spine is attached to a hook or is configured in the formof a hook. The hook is positioned to allow the bag to dangle orotherwise hang from a belt or shaft. The hook contains one or moreopenings allowing the convenient hanging of the bag from a peg or nail.Two flat horizontal arms project from the bag's vertical spine, to limitthe degree of the sagging open of the bag when the bag's contents addweight and to keep the bag open for easy access. The horizontal arms areheld against the bag wall by an adhesive, preferably a piece of doublefaced adhesive tape. Additional contact surface fastenings on the frontand back of the bag provide for stacking of bags when hung for eitherstorage or use. The bag may be flat, cylindrical, or half-cylindrical,and its bottom may be either square or rounded.

The bags are light weight and so the user may carry multiple bags at onetime. The bags may hang on rods, nails or brackets attached to a wall ofa workplace or on rods attached to a wall of a van or truck. Each bagmay be labeled to identify its contents.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a frontal view of an open bag with a hook.

FIG. 1B is a partial view of the bend in the hook.

FIG. 1C is a frontal view of a closed bag with a hook.

FIG. 1D is a side view of a bag with hook.

FIG. 2 is a bag with a rounded bottom and a hook.

FIG. 3 is a bag with rounded internal corners and a hook.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a bag with a hook.

FIG. 5A is a top plan view of a large cylindrical bag with a hook.

FIG. 5B is a top plan view of a small cylindrical bag with a hook.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of a half-cylindrical bag and hook.

FIG. 7A is a front view of a bag with a hole in its back panel.

FIG. 7B is a side view of the bag of FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8 is a front view of a bag with a squeeze buckle.

FIG. 9A shows two bags stackable with each other.

FIG. 9B shows a first stacking arrangement.

FIG. 9C shows a second stacking arrangement.

FIG. 10 shows a hook before bending.

FIG. 11 shows a bent hook.

FIG. 12 shows a side view of the bent hook.

FIG. 13 shows a partial view of the hook inserted below a bag closureline.

FIG. 14 shows a partial view of the hook threaded through a wall of thebag.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention comprises a tough, transparent, flexible, plastic storagebag 10, as shown in FIGS. 1A, 1C and 1D, open at the top, for storage ofhardware such as screws 20, nails or other fasteners, liquids such aspaint, or semi-liquids such as putty or spackle. The back of the bag 10is fabricated with a reinforcement 30 that extends above the edge of thebag far enough to form either a hook 35 as in FIGS. 1D and 1B, or abuckle. The reinforcement extends far enough down the back of the bag 10to stiffen and reinforce the bag during use. The reinforcement 30 isheld against the bag wall by an adhesive that is preferably in the formof double sided adhesive tape. The bag 10 and its opening are largeenough to allow a user's hand to retrieve contents from any part of theinterior of the bag. The hook 35 has a hole 37 drilled through it toallow the bag to be hung from a peg or nail (FIG. 1B).

In a first outline embodiment, shown in FIG. 1A in a face-on view, thebag 10 is rectangular and flat, with fold over top corners 12, and acutaway of the top edge 14 of the front panel 13 of the bag tofacilitate access to the contents of the bag. The edges 16, 17 of thebag are welded and are preferably between one quarter and three eightsinches deep. The edges 16 of the bag may be rounded at the bottom as inFIG. 2 or the bag may have rounded corners and a straight bottom edge 17as in FIG. 3. The rounded bottom and rounded corners reduce thelikelihood of catching an edge of the bag on other objects during use.They also provide easier access to all the spaces in the bag and toreduce the likelihood of bag puncture by pointed hardware stored insidethe bag.

In a first cross-section embodiment, shown in FIG. 4 in a top-down view,the bag is flat, and expands to hold a varying number of pieces ofhardware or quantity of other substances. In a second cross-sectionembodiment, the bag 10 is cylindrical as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, witha cylindrical bottom. In a third cross-section embodiment, the bag 10 issemi-cylindrical as shown in FIG. 6, with a semi-cylindrical bottom.These cylindrical and semi-cylindrical embodiments provide greaterholding capacity for fluids and other bulk materials.

The bag closes at the top to improve retention of pieces of hardwareduring movement. In a first closure embodiment, shown in FIG. 1C, theclosure is provided by folding the two upper corners 12 of the bag 10over the bag's opening and attaching them to the front 13 of the bagusing a contact surface fastening 18 such as Velcro. In a second closureembodiment (not shown), the closure is provided by a locking plasticlinear closure such as Zip-Loc, to seal the bag to prevent spillage offluids and other bulk materials.

In a first reinforcement embodiment as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1D, theback of the bag 10 is fastened to a flat vertical spine 32 having areinforcing crosspiece 33 also fastened to the back of the bag toprevent the bag from sagging open during use with heavy contents. In asecond reinforcement embodiment shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the back panel19 of the bag is fabricated out of a flat piece of a gauge of plasticsufficiently heavy to stiffen the bag and prevent the bag from saggingopen. The bag in the second reinforcement embodiment is formed bybonding the thinner, transparent plastic of the front panel 13 of thebag to the thicker plastic of the back panel 19 of the bag. The backpanel plastic may be opaque. The back panel may also be made from metal,fiberboard, or other stiff material.

The bag's back panel 19 extends above the top of the bag as shown inFIGS. 7A and 7B. In a first attachment embodiment, the reinforcementterminates in a hook 35 that curves back away from the back to engagewith a carrying belt or a storage shaft. The back panel 19 and hook 35have holes 37 drilled through them to enable the hanging of the bag froma peg or nail during storage.

In a second attachment embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the reinforcementor back panel terminates in a side-release buckle 40, also called asqueeze buckle. The reinforcement 19 is attached to the male half 41 ofthe buckle 40, which clips into a female half 42 of the buckle 40. Thefemale half 42 of the buckle comprises one end of a hanging hook, a beltextension, a belt loop, or one of multiple such female halves of bucklesattached to a vertical storage belt, a wall panel, or a sheet of fabric.In other attachment embodiments, the male and female halves of thebuckle are swapped.

See FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C. In a stacking embodiment, the bag may bestacked with other such bags both for storage and for use while beingcarried. On the front and back of each bag are mounted added contactsurface fastenings 51 such as Velcro, so that a bag may be attached to abag either in front or in back or both in front and in back.

Different outline embodiments, cross-section embodiments, closureembodiments, attachment embodiments, and stacking embodiments may becombined to produce numerous embodiment combinations having theadvantages of specific features of the instances of the differentembodiment classes. For example, the semi-cylindrical cross-sectionembodiment may be combined with the locking plastic linear closureembodiment to produce an embodiment suitable for paint storage and use.In another example, the rectangular flat outline embodiment combineswith the stacking embodiment to produce an embodiment suitable for thestacking and use of multiple bags on one attachment. The examples andembodiments described herein indicate only a few instances of thepossible range of embodiment combinations possible with the invention.

FIG. 10 shows the hook 100 in its reformed, flat state. The hook 100 hasan elongated body with a lower finger 101 at one end, an upper finger104 at the other end, and a central body portion 102 with lateralfingers 106, 108. The upper finger 104 has a hole 105 for receiving anail or other hanging support. The central body 102 has an opening 103.The upper finger is bent at bend line 107 to extend over the opening 103as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. The hook 100 is made of any suitablematerial such as metal or plastic, that can be bent and hold its bentshape and provide a resilient upper finger 104 that may attach over abelt or pant top.

Turning to FIG. 13, there is shown a hook 100 inside a bag 120 that hasan upper closure device 118 such as a press lock or zipper lock. Anopening 122 is made in one of the walls of the bag below the closuredevice. The hook 100 is inserted through the opening 122 so that thelower finger 101 and the central body 102 are inside the bag and thecurved, upper finger 104 is outside the bag. In one embodiment anadhesive 114 is placed between one surface of the lower finger 101 andthe facing surface of the bag wall to hold the finger 101 to the bagwall. In another embodiment, a second opening 124 is made in the bagwall and below the first opening 122 and wide enough to permit the lowerfinger to extend through and outside the bag wall. See FIG. 14.

In operation, a user opens the closure device on the top of the bag andfills the bag with nails, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. The user then hangsthe bag by the hook over a belt worn by the user or any other suitableaccessory or component of the user's clothing. When the user is finishedwith the bag, he may close it and then store the bag on a nail orsupport hook by placing the opening 105 on the curved finger 104 overthe nail or support hook.

All of the embodiments of the invention may provide the supporting spine30 either outside the bag or inside the bag. Those skilled in the artunderstand that the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1D, 4, 5A, 5B and 6 maybe reconfigured to dispose the spine 30 inside the bag. Likewise, theembodiments shown in FIGS. 13, 14 may be reconfigured to attach the hook100 to the outside surface of the bag. In both instances it is preferredto provide an opening in the top of the bag proximate and below the topclosure rib and to use the top closure rib to retain the spine or hookin place. The double faced adhesive tape keeps the spine or hook frommoving.

1. A bag for storing, carrying, identifying, and retrieving for use anyof a wide range of small fasteners or other hardware, or of smallquantities of surface treatments such as paint, putty, calk, or spackle,comprising: a puncture-resistant bag having one or more transparentfaces for viewing the bag's contents; a closure for the bag; a means ofreinforcement for stiffening the bag to facilitate access to the bag'scontents; and a means of hanging the bag from a belt, a hook, a peg, asurface, or another bag.
 2. The bag of claim 1 wherein thepuncture-resistant bag is flat in shape.
 3. The bag of claim 1 whereinthe puncture-resistant bag is cylindrical in shape.
 4. The bag of claim1 wherein the puncture-resistant bag is semi-cylindrical in shape. 5.The bag of claim 1 wherein the closure comprises: two corner flaps ofthe bag; and contact surface fastenings for each of the corner flaps. 6.The bag of claim 1 wherein the means of reinforcement comprises: avertical spine affixed to the back of the bag; and a horizontalcrosspiece affixed to the back of the bag.
 7. The bag of claim 1 whereinthe means of reinforcement comprises a stiffened back side of the bag.8. The bag of claim 1 wherein the means of hanging the bag comprises ahook.
 9. The bag of claim 1 wherein the means of hanging the bagcomprises a hole for hanging the bag from a peg or nail.
 10. The bag ofclaim 1 wherein the means of hanging the bag comprises a snap fastener.11. A bag for storing, carrying, identifying, and retrieving for use anyof a wide range of small fasteners or other hardware, or of smallquantities of surface treatments such as paint, putty, calk, or spackle,comprising: a puncture-resistant bag having two walls permanently fixedon most of their border and having a closure device on the remainingportions of the wall for closing or opening them to access the interiorof the bag or to close the bag to keep its contents from escaping; saidbag having a first opening in one of its walls, said opening having afirst length; a hook having one portion disposed inside the bag andextending through said opening and terminating outside the bag.
 12. Thebag of claim 11 wherein the hook comprises an elongated body with afirst finger at one end, a central body with two lateral fingersextending in opposite directions, and a third, curved finger.
 13. Thebag of claim 12 wherein the opening in the bag is smaller than thedistance between the ends of the lateral fingers.
 14. The bag of claim12 further comprising an adhesive disposed between the first finger andthe wall of the bag for holding the first finger to the wall of the bag.15. The bag of claim 12 further comprising a second opening in said walldisposed below the first opening for permitting the distal portion ofthe first finger to extend outside said bag.